Archaeology Notes

Event ID 673227

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/673227

NM15NE 1 1836 5942.

Dun Dubh, a fort. There is no trace of the alleged well, the only stones around the fort being tumble. (However, OS 1:10,000 1976 shows a well some 50m SE of the fort, at NM 1841 5939.)

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (R L) 18 June 1972.

(NM 1836 5942) Dun Dubh (NAT) Fort (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1976)

Fort, Dun Dubh: This fort occupies a detached rock ridge on the N coast of Coll 620m NNE of Clabhach. The ridge, running approximately NW and SE, comprises a high rocky boss at the SE end and, towards the NW, a series of terraces, which fall steeply to the sea on the W and have an almost vertical drop on the S. The E side of the ridge has been defended by a series of walls, of which the innermost (A on plan) runs along the crest, the wall-face standing 0.3m in two courses and the remains of the rubble core reaching a height of about 1m. The entrance has been at the S end, where part of the E side of the entrance-passage survives in situ. Two further stretches of this wall are still visible to the N and W, the former filling a cleft in the rock and standing to a height of 0.6m in three courses. Some 2.5m down the rocky slope below wall 'A', there is an outer wall (B), standing to a height of about 1m in four irregular courses. The NE flank has been defended by a further wall (C) which, where best preserved, stands to a height of 1.2m in six courses; a short isolated stretch of this wall on the N seals a narrow gully. Just within wall 'A' there are the remains of two sub-circular stone-walled enclosures, which have been constructed out of the ruins of the fort wall; the larger measures about 4.6m by 3.7m internally within a wall, which still stands to a height of about 0.5m, but only the foundation course of the smaller enclosure survives.

Beveridge notes (E Beveridge 1903) hammer-stones, fragments of coarse pottery, and small rounded pebbles found here. He also describes, in a ravine, some 30yds N of the fort, is a tiny rill, with, in its course, a heap of large stones which appears to have formed a well in connection with the fort.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1975; E Beveridge 1903.